


Call Me Dumb, Call Me Wild

by ShowMeAHero



Series: The Smithsonian [10]
Category: Captain America - All Media Types, Marvel, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Avengers Family, Domestic, Domestic Avengers, Domestic Fluff, Fluff, Humor, I'd be jealous too tbh, Jealousy, M/M, Prompt Fill, but I'd handle it much worse than Bucky does
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-15
Updated: 2015-04-15
Packaged: 2018-03-23 01:41:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,791
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3750217
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShowMeAHero/pseuds/ShowMeAHero
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bucky never used to be jealous, but he didn't used to have any need to be jealous. Now, he does. Turns out he's a little bit of a jealous guy.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Call Me Dumb, Call Me Wild

**Author's Note:**

> [Dragonkittin](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Dragonkittin/pseuds/Dragonkittin) commented on the last part in this series and said, "jealous!Bucky is hilarious. I'd love to see more in this 'verse," and I thought, "Hmm, so would I," so I stayed up way too late and wrote this hot mess.
> 
> Title is from Darren Criss' song "Jealousy".

In Steve and Bucky’s younger and more vulnerable years, girls never really gave Steve the time of day. Sure, the girls that Bucky was inclined to hang around with were usually less inclined to be interested in Steve, but that didn’t mean that  _every single person_ shouldn’t’ve wanted to jump Steve’s frail, hollow little bones the second they got the chance. Bucky sure as hell wanted to.

He didn’t act on it for a while, but, you know. It was a different time. He eventually acted on it, so, it’s fine.

The point is, Bucky never really had that much of a chance to let jealousy eat at him, because, for the most part, he had Steve all to himself. Once they were in the army together, though, and Steve had Peggy? That’s when shit started to go down.

Bucky had never considered himself a particularly jealous man, but, apparently, that was just because he had never had any real reason to be jealous. All he had ever really wanted was Steve, and he had had Steve. But, once Steve showed up overseas, all big and good-looking and less likely to get murdered by a stiff wind and a piece of trash, with Peggy right alongside him, Bucky felt like he had no stomach and no liver and maybe no intestines, and instead had eighteen additional hearts to make up for the space. It was awful. It ate away at him.

He let it happen.

Eventually, Steve made it clear that Bucky was the only one for him, anyways, much to the displeasure of Dum Dum Dugan, who Bucky and Steve shared a tent with when they were on the go. Bucky’s jealousy went away before he got a chance to take a good look at it and figure out what it was. Nobody was challenging Bucky for Steve’s affection (except maybe Peggy once or twice, and a couple ladies who were a little too flashy around Steve, but it was never enough for Bucky to feel threatened again). Life was good.

Then the train, the arm, HYDRA, some ice, a little freezer burn, then 2015. You know the story.

Nowadays, Bucky had a little too much time to examine his own feelings when someone looked at Steve twice on the street, or when crowds of people demanded his attention, or when that cute girl at the coffee shop wrote Steve little notes on his cup and Steve smiled at them. It was all a little much, and Steve was always there with Bucky, but Steve was so well-adjusted and attractive and famous and _big_ and he was just so… _Steve_. People were finally seeing what Bucky had always seen when he looked at Steve, and part of Bucky was thrilled about that, sure, for Steve’s sake.

But another part of him, a more selfish part, absolutely hated it.

He hated that everyone commanded so much of Steve’s attention, and that Steve, being Steve, tended to give it to them. He hated that everyone flirted with Steve. He hated that people took pictures with him. He hated that gossip magazines posted blog articles speculating on who Steve was dating. He hated every part of it. He wanted to hide Steve away in a cave or something and keep him for himself until Dr. Doom blew up the world and they all died or some shit like that.

But, obviously, he couldn’t do _that_.

The first time Steve started to catch on, Steve had insisted on giving Peter Parker, their newest Avenger, a sparring lesson, and the two of them decided to meet up for coffee beforehand. Steve, being Steve, invited Bucky along, and Peter was more than happy to meet him and talk to him (if “Oh, you’re the _Winter Soldier,_ what’s up, my dude?” and a series of grunts and one comment from Bucky counted as _talking_ ). A woman came up to them while they were sitting there and started gushing over Steve, as per usual. Peter looked startled and a little excited; Bucky was mostly annoyed. Steve, as always, took it like a champ, smiling and nodding and answering the woman’s questions.

Steve agreed to take a picture with her. That’s where it _really_ started. She leaned in to take a selfie - which Bucky could appreciate, really, he liked selfies, but only when _he was the one taking them with Steve,_ or maybe with a dog - and turned her head to kiss Steve on the cheek in the picture. Bucky crushed his flimsy little coffee cup. Steve and Peter both jumped. The woman looked a little frightened, and Bucky was more than a little satisfied by that.

Steve apologized to the woman and set to cleaning up the coffee. Bucky apologized to Steve. Peter laughed and clapped Bucky on the shoulder. Bucky was starting to like the kid a little bit.

The thing was, Bucky _knew_ that his behavior was ridiculous. He knew Steve could have other friends, and Steve did. Steve was bisexual, he had friends all along the gender spectrum, and he never really did anything with them. He knew that Steve could do whatever he wanted, but Bucky would honestly rather just make out with him and stop letting people flirt with him and just be done with the whole thing.

Like it says above, Bucky knew that his behavior was ridiculous. But knowing that doesn’t mean he stopped feeling how he felt.

The next time happened at the dog park, when Steve and Bucky were out with Clint and playing with Clint’s dog, Lucky, who honestly tried to eat almost everything that he set eyes on. Bucky understood the dog on a deep level. He also got along with Clint, since both of them were brainwashed, so they had that to talk about, and also Clint’s kind of hilarious and fun to be around. Bucky liked him a lot.

Steve was down in the grass, wrestling with the dog, while Bucky and Clint sat on the bench and half-heartedly supervised while animatedly discussing _Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt,_ when It Happened.

Another dog came barrelling out of nowhere - a huge, muscular, probably purebred Great Dane - with his owner still attached to the other side of his leash. The guy collided with Steve, and the dog stopped now that something was preventing his owner from being dragged to Kingdom Come. The dog and Lucky sat side-by-side while Steve and this new guy tried to untangle themselves from one another. The guy seemed to be exaggerating how tangled he is. Bucky decided right then that he better lend a helping hand, and almost tossed the guy into a tree helping (“helping”) him up.

“Sorry about that,” the guy apologized to Steve, giving Bucky a look that Bucky might call _anxious_. Bucky just stared the guy down with his Winter Soldier eyes. That’s what Kate called them, anyways.

“It’s completely fine,” Steve assured him, unwrapping the guy’s leash from where it was stuck knotted around his thigh. The guy reached out to help. Bucky resisted the urge to _actually_ toss the guy into a tree this time.

“I’m Adam,” the guy said, introducing himself, and Bucky wanted to just lean down in the guy’s face and ask, oh my _God_ , was he _serious_ right now?

“I’m Steve,” Steve replied, sticking out his right hand while still untangling the leash with his left, the ambidextrous asshole, and Bucky didn’t snort, but he almost did, because Steve was _ridiculous_. The guy - _Adam_ \- looked puzzled for a moment before shaking Steve’s hand. Steve actually looked kind of delighted for a minute there.

“I know who you are,” Adam said, and, okay, a little creepy, and Steve’s whole face fell for a split second before he forced it back up again. Bucky _really_ wanted to clock the guy now. Clint was at his side a second later, observing with obvious amusement. “I’ve seen you on TV and stuff. Captain America, right?”

Steve so clearly bit back a sigh but he nodded as he finally got the leash untangled. Adam, thank God for small mercies, pulled his hands away from Steve’s thighs. Clint raised an eyebrow.

“That’s me,” Steve confirmed. He snapped his fingers, and Lucky came obediently to sit at his side.

“Aww, dog,” Clint whined. “You never learn any tricks I try to teach you.”

“Steve’s good like that,” Bucky commented in a deliberately low voice. Adam glanced over at him, and Bucky just raised his chin.

“Are you-”

“Yup,” Bucky interrupted. He (gently) pulled the end of the leash out of Steve’s hand and placed it in Adam’s palm. “It’s been a genuine pleasure.”

Adam looked at him for a second before turning to his dog, fixing his collar for something to do with his hands. “Yeah, nice to meet you. Thanks for saving New York, Captain. If you’re ever free-”

“He isn’t,” Bucky interrupted again. Steve turned to him, eyebrows raised. “Like I said. Pleasure. Bye.”

Adam narrowed his eyes, but he and his dog - whose collar said _Stark_ , and, really, what the hell - finally left. Steve turned to Bucky once the guy was out of earshot.

“You alright, Buck?” Steve asked, and of _course_ Steve wouldn’t be mad that Bucky just acted like a total dick, and of _course_ Steve would be worried that Bucky was a little off because something was _actually_ wrong with him. It’s just so _Steve_.

“I’m fine,” Bucky replied shortly. “Let’s just go home.”

And when did home start meaning the apartment he and Steve shared in that huge Avengers Tower? Actually, when did home start meaning anything at all again?

The last time (the straw that broke the camel’s back, as it were, the camel being Steve in this metaphor, and the straw being Bucky acting like a nut) that something happened, it was actually at a fairly crowded press event, which literally couldn’t’ve been worse for anybody, especially Phil, who probably wanted to die, but for _real_ this time.

It started out nice enough. Bruce wasn’t really talking much; he usually let Tony do his talking for him, but, once Bruce got started on something, he really got going, and Bucky was more than happy to just sit back and listen to Bruce discuss an experiment that Bucky already knew all the parameters of, but in Russian instead of in English. Steve was on his left side, right at the end of the line of chairs set up for them, with Sam in the very very last chair, next to Steve. Natasha was on Bucky’s other side, absently writing words in Russian onto Bucky’s thigh, trying to make him crack a smile.

Clint was on Natasha’s other side, then Peter, then Thor (who was leaning forward and speaking softly to a little girl who had made her way to the front of the crowd and was on her tip-toes at the edge of the stage), then Bruce, _then_ Tony. Maria was off to the side, watching them with a careful eye, and Phil, no doubt, was listening in on every word.

Bucky really didn’t care. Nobody ever asked him anything, anyways.

“This question’s for Captain Rogers,” someone said, once Bruce’s discussion was over, and Bucky’s couldn’t get a real read on a gender for the voice, but that didn’t phase him as much anymore. He listened, though. He always listened to Steve’s answers.

“Ask away,” Steve encouraged, smiling at the person, who almost exploded on the spot. Bucky could tell this was about to go real bad, real fast.

“Are you dating anyone?” they asked, and Steve blinked once before putting the smile back in place. He got the question a lot; he was used to it.

“No, I’m not,” Steve answered. The person perked up a little. The hair on the back of Bucky’s neck stood up.

“Why not?” they inquired, innocently enough, but with a bit of an edge to their voice that Steve obviously picked up on. Bucky leaned forward a little bit in his chair. Everyone was looking at Steve, who usually didn’t have to explain himself on the spot for this one.

“Uhm,” Steve said, shooting a look at Bucky, who shrugged. Steve frowned at him. “I don’t know.”

“Good answer, Cap,” Tony muttered under his breath. Maria was motioning frantically offstage.

“Would you like to be?” the person asked, and the crowd all _ooh’d_ like someone had just been called to the principal’s office, or like Julie told Sammy that Sarah told Julie that Marky told Sarah that Jimmy liked-liked Sammy, but with superheroes and a lot of camera flashbulbs and a nervously sweating super-soldier instead of a bunch of kindergarteners.

“Uhm,” Steve said again, always eloquent.

“He actually is dating someone,” Bucky spoke up, and was almost immediately blinded by the aforementioned camera flashbulbs when they instantly turned on him.

“Who?” the person asked, their cheeks flushed, clearly a little embarrassed. Whatever. Bucky’s heart was in his throat because Steve was _his_ and he was an _animal_ and this person was trying to _make a move_ or something and sometimes a person can’t help but be a little primal.

“Me,” Bucky answered, twisting around in his seat to grab the back of Steve’s head. He only saw the surprised expression on Steve’s face for a second before he had his tongue down Steve’s throat, and he’d sure as shit catch hell for this later (if not from Steve, then from Phil and Maria and, no doubt, Natasha). At the moment, though, he was all green (not like the Hulk, but, like, with _jealousy_ \- fuck it, Bucky’s always been terrible with metaphors), and nothing else really mattered. Steve brought his hand up to the back of Bucky’s head after a long, terrible moment, and Bucky pulled back when he would have when Steve was little and still needed air, lest he die.

They were greeted with silence.

Then, all hell broke loose.

The curtain immediately fell and Maria was in front of Bucky in a second. Steve still looked a little dazed.

“What the hell was that?” Maria demanded, and Bucky stared up at her innocently, in the way that he used to look up at the nuns when he and Steve came back to the orphanage all dirty and bloodied and grinning like idiots.

“You knew we were together, we had to fill out the paperwork with you,” Bucky said, and Maria looked ready to kill him. Bucky should’ve known; the look never worked on the nuns, either.

“Twitter’s blowing up,” Clint commented absently. He reached around Maria to take a picture of Steve and Bucky, presumably to post on Twitter in order to boost his follower count. “Classic.”

“Put a good filter on that one, Birdbrains, I want to blow it up really big and hang it on the outside of the Tower,” Tony instructed. He and Clint high-fived over everyone’s heads. It was an effort.

“Phil’s going to kill us,” Steve said, when he finally did speak.

“Correction: Phil’s going to kill _Bucky,_ ” Natasha amended. “He’s got a total hard-on for you.”

“Soft spot.”

“I know what I said.”

“Steve, Bucky, there’s a car, Happy’s driving, _get in it,_ ” Maria demanded. Pepper was climbing up onto the stage now, looking like she might explode from trying not to laugh. Bucky really couldn’t blame her.

Bucky followed Maria and Steve to the car like a kid getting sent to detention with the scariest teacher in the school, but where the teacher was Phil and detention was - you know what, fuck it, Bucky doesn’t do similes, either.

As soon as they were in the car, and Happy put up the partition between him and them after taking one look at their faces, Steve rounded on Bucky.

“Why the hell would you do that, Buck? You said you didn’t want-”

“I want you,” Bucky interrupted. “I’m sorry, I just- I want _you_.”

Steve’s face softened a little. “You have me. You know you do, you always have-”

“I wanted everyone _else_ to know that,” Bucky clarified. “Because people are always - I don’t know, tripping all over themselves for you, and I know that I’m-”

“If you say a bad word about my favorite person, I’m gonna knock you six ways to Sunday,” Steve threatened, and Bucky smiled, just a little, but enough that Steve smiled back.

“You’re such an idiot,” Steve finally said. “A jealous fuckin’ idiot.”

“I know,” Bucky agreed. He flexed his fingers and stared at the metal joints moving, just for something to focus on. “Sorry.”

“You never have to apologize to me,” Steve reminded him. Then he paused. “Except when you try to swallow my lungs on national television.”

“ _One time_ that happens-”

 

**Author's Note:**

> What a disaster.
> 
> Never hesitate to send a prompt, if you want!
> 
> You can follow me on Twitter at [@nicoIodeon](https://twitter.com/nicoIodeon) or on Tumblr at [andillwriteyouatragedy](http://andillwriteyouatragedy.tumblr.com/).


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